Interview Q and A for Oracle Installation, Patching, Cloning and Upgrade Part - 5

141. What are the Requirements for OUI ?

Java Runtime Environment (JRE).

Automatically installed with Oracle Universal Installer on most platforms.

OUI VERSION JRE

2.2.x 1.3.1-build 20020316 , 1.1.8-Build 20020313

10.1.x 1.4.1.2

10.2.x 1.4.2

11.1.x 1.5.0.06

Memory Requirements.

32 MB minimum recommended on all platforms.

Memory requirements vary depending on the number of components installed.

Check the Release Notes or installation guide for the products that you are installing for details.

Disk Space Requirements.

Oracle recommends at least 60 MB for Oracle Universal Installer files on Windows platforms.

70 MB on UNIX. You may need up to 1 MB for the related inventory files

142. Which is the default location for OUI ?

Oracle RDBMS Version OUI Location

9.2.0.x.x

c:\Program Files\Oracle\oui\bin\setup.exe (For Windows)

<oraInventory>/oui/bin/runInstaller (For UNIX)

10.1.0.x.x %ORACLE_HOME%\oui\bin\setup.exe (For Windows)

$ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin/runInstaller(For UNIX)

10.2.0.x.x %ORACLE_HOME%\oui\bin\setup.exe (For Windows)

$ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin/runInstaller(For UNIX)

11.1.0.x.x %ORACLE_HOME%\oui\bin\setup.exe (For Windows)

$ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin/runInstaller(For UNIX)

143. How to find the version of the installed OUI ?

Invoke the OUI from the respective locations

On the welcome screen of OUI:

OPTION 1 :

Click on the button "About Oracle Universal Installer"

OPTION 2 :

Press the keys "Alt + o" .   This will display a pop-up window which tells the version of the OUI.

e.g. : Oracle Universal Installer Version 11.1.0.6.0

144. Where can you find the logs for OUI ?

All the logs can be found in <Central_Inventory>/logs/

For more detailed information refer the Note 403212.1 ( Location Of Logs For Opatch And OUI ) which contains detailed information about the location of the log files for each command.

145. How to remove / de-install / uninstall an existing Oracle home using OUI ?

Invoke Oracle Universal Installer

Click De-install Products.

At the Inventory dialog, select the home(s) you wish to delete.

Click Remove.

For 10.1 and 10.2 OUI, you may also use the REMOVE_HOMES variable in the command line.

The syntax is as follows (OUI 10.2 e.g.):

./runInstaller -deinstall REMOVE_HOMES={"<LOCATION_OF_ORACLE_HOME_TO_BE_REMOVED>"} -silent

146. You have lost the Central Inventory but have a valid Oracle home(s). What do you do?

Oracle RDBMS 9.2.0.x..x and 10.1.0.x.x

==================

In Oracle 9.2 / 10.1 you can restore the Central Inventory from backup or you can clone the Oracle home(s) from an identical installation.

Oracle RDBMS 10.2.0.x..x and 11.1.x.x.x

===================================

Oracle Universal Installer allows you to set up the Central Inventory or register an existing ORACLE_HOME with the Central Inventory in case of Central Inventory corruption or loss. You need to execute command with the -attachHome flag from $ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin.

For example:

cd $ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin

./runInstaller -silent -attachHome -invPtrLoc ./oraInst.loc ORACLE_HOME="<Oracle_Home_Location>" ORACLE_HOME_NAME="<Oracle_Home_Name>"

OR

cd $ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin

./runInstaller -silent -attachHome -invPtrLoc ./oraInst.loc ORACLE_HOME="<Oracle_Home_Location>" ORACLE_HOME_NAME="<Oracle_Home_Name>" CLUSTER_NODES="<node1,node2>" LOCAL_<node_name>"

'-attachHome' flag simply attaches the OracleHome if central inventory pre-exists (OR) recreates the central inventory (if it is not pre-exists) and then attaches the OracleHome.

147. You want to deploy multiple Oracle home(s) from an existing Oracle home. How do you do this?

Oracle Universal Installer creates Oracle homes during Oracle software installation. To deploy multiple Oracle homes using an existing one, you need to clone the Oracle home. For more information on cloning and mass deployment refer the Metalink Note 300062.1 ( How To Clone An Existing RDBMS Installation Using OUI )

NOTE: Copying an Oracle Home is not supported by Oracle

148.You have lost the Oracle home (local)inventory (comps.xml). What can you do?

Oracle recommends backing up the inventory when an Oracle home is installed or removed.

Ensure that you back up the comps.xml having the latest time stamp.

When your Oracle home inventory is corrupted or lost, you can restore from the backup or you can install the Oracle home from an identical installation. Rebuilding the Oracle Home inventory is not possible

NOTE : Manually editing comps.xml is not supported by Oracle.

149. How is OUI Getting initialized ?

The oraparam.ini file is the initialization file for OUI. This file includes information that defines the behavior of certain OUI features. Each product installation possesses a unique oraparam.ini file.

150. Can you edit oraparam.ini file ?

You should not have to edit the contents of this file, but in certain situations, understanding the contents of this file can help you troubleshoot problems and understand certain aspects of the OUI

151. What are the different modes of installation using OUI ?

You can use Oracle Universal Installer to install Oracle products in any of the three following modes:

Interactive:

Use OUI's interactive mode to use the graphical user interface to walk through the installation, providing information in the installation dialogs when prompted.

This method is most useful when installing a small number of products in different setups on a small number of machines

Suppressed:

Use OUI's suppressed mode to supply the necessary information by using a combination of a response file or command line entries with certain interactive dialogs. You can choose which dialogs by supplying the information at the command line when you invoke OUI. This method is most useful when an installation has a common set of parameters that can be captured in a response file, in custom information that must be input by hand.

Silent:

Use OUI's silent installation mode to bypass the graphical user interface and supply the necessary information in a response file.This method is most useful when installing the same product multiple multiple machines. By using a response file, you can automate the installation of a product for which you know the installation parameters.

152. What are OUI exit codes ?

If you are starting and stopping OUI programmatically (for example, by invoking OUI using a response file), you may need to consider the exit codes generated by OUI and perform a particular action depending code OUI returns.

Code Description

0 All installations were successful

1 All installations were successful but some optional configuration tools

failed

-1 At least one installation failed

153. How can you trouble shoot the OUI hanging/disappear issues on UNIX ?

1) Check for certification information from metalink

2) Follow the instructions in the following Metalink

Note 208944.1 How to Resolve Issues of the OUI Hanging on UNIX

Note 153960.1 FAQ: X Server Testing and Troubleshooting

Note 73123.1 Universal Installer / OPatch tools are Hanging and / or Fail to Install

3) Check with the workarounds mentioned in the following articles

Note 166462.1 During Install OUI Error:Unable to Setup Inventory

Note 1012963.102 OUI Using Reflection Displays Plain Blue Screen, Distorted Screen Image, or Hangs

Note 185083.1 runInstaller gives outofmemory error

Note 123847.1 Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) Fails With java.lang. OutOfMemoryError

Note 312997.1 When Trying To Start The Oracle Universal Installer (OUI), It Fails With The Error `The Java RunTime Environment was not found at /bin/java`

Note 336706.1 Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) Fails To Start - Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: oracle/sysman/oii/oiic/OiicInstaller

154. How can you trouble shoot the OUI hanging/disappear issues on windows ?

1) Check for certification information from metalink

2) Follow the instructions in the following Metalink :

Note 71919.1 Debugging the Oracle Universal Installer(OUI) on Windows

Note 436299.1 Common reasons for OUI failures on the MS Windows platforms

Note 137200.1 Checklist when Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) fails for Windows

3) Check with the workarounds mentioned in the following articles

Note 266617.1 Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) may appear and then disappear on Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4

Note 340596.1 Oui Does Not Start

Note 384257.1 Oracle Universal Installer Is Not Launching on windows 2003

Note 269173.1 Installer Disappears On Windows 2000 After Launching setup.exe

Note 286152.1 OUI May Disappear When Installing Oracle10g CRS on Windows 2003

Note 404782.1 Setup.Exe Is Not Starting The Installation Process On Windows Server

155. When You start OUI from any location, after setting the PATH , you get an error that reads "Could not read any NLS message catalogue!". What do you do?

Oracle Universal Installer needs some files in the directory where the runInstaller (UNIX) or setup.exe (Windows) is running. So, when you invoke runInstaller (UNIX) or setup.exe (Windows), you should invoke the directory where this command is present, or you must specify the complete path.

156.What is Cloning ? How can you do a cloning using OUI ?

Cloning is the process of copying an existing installation to a different location while preserving its configuration.You can install multiple copies of the Oracle product easily on different computers using cloning.During cloning, Oracle Universal Installer is invoked in clone mode to adapt the home to the target environment. Oracle Universal Installer in clone mode will replay all the actions that have been executed to the source installed Oracle home.

For cloning an existing RDBMS installation using Oracle Universal Installer (OUI)

Refer the metalink Note 300062.1 How To Clone An Existing RDBMS Installation Using OUI

157. How to attach an Oracle Home using OUI ?

Locate the central inventory

In Unix the location of central inventory (oraInventory) can be found from the oraInst.loc file, which exists in the /var/opt/oracle or /etc/ (By default).

In Windows the location of the central inventory can be found from the value of the pointer “inst_loc“ that can be found from the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\ key in the registry. default the central inventory exists in C:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory.

Take a back up of central inventory.

% cp -R oraInventory oraInventory.orig

Change the directory to the oui location.

% cd $ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin

Execute runInstaller with -attachHome option for Oracle Home :

% ./runInstaller -silent -ignoreSysPrereqs -attachHome ORACLE_HOME="<Oracle_Home_Location>" ORACLE_HOME_NAME="<Name_Of _Oracle_Home>"

NOTE : Attaching Oracle Home works with 10.2.0.x and 11.1.0.x.

158. How to detach an Oracle Home using OUI ?

1) Locate the central inventory

In Unix the location of central inventory (oraInventory) can be found from the oraInst.loc file, which exists in the /var/opt/oracle or /etc/ (By default).

In Windows the location of the central inventory can be found from the value of the pointer “inst_loc“ that can be found from the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\ key in the registry. default the central inventory exists in C:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory

2) Take a back up of central inventory.

% cp -R oraInventory oraInventory.orig

3) Change the directory to the oui location.

% cd $ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin

4) Execute runInstaller with -detachHome option for Oracle Home :

./runInstaller -silent -detachHome ORACLE_HOME="<Oracle_Home_Location>" ORACLE_HOME_NAME="<Name_Of _Oracle_Home>"

NOTE : Detaching Oracle Home only works with 10.2.0.x and 11.1.0.x.

159. How to start the OUI if the oraInst.loc file is not in the default location? ( Unix)

% ./runInstaller -invPtrLoc <oraInst.loc_location>

e.g. : % ./runInstaller -invPtrLoc /u01/app/oracle/10.2/db1/oraInst.loc

160. How to create a new response file ? OR

How to create a response file for silent installation ?

A silent installation runs in the console and does not use the GUI. The interactive dialogs normally seen by the user are not displayed in silent installation. Instead of prompting the user to select a installation options, Oracle Universal Installer installs the software using a pre-defined set of options stored in a response file or passed on the command line. You can view the progress of a silent the console.

A response file is a specification file containing information normally provided by the user through the Oracle Universal Installer user interface during an interactive installation session. Each answer a value for a variable identified in the response file.

Refer the Metalink Note 388451.1 How to create a Response File for Silent Installation?

Before 11GR2 :

- using "record" option

You can create a new response file, based on the installation options you select, by using Oracle Universal Installer's record mode.

To record a new response file:

At the command prompt, use the cd command to change to the directory that contains the Oracle Universal Installer executable file (setup.exe or runInstaller.sh) for your installation.

Enter the following command:

> setup -record -destinationFile <response_file_name> (on Windows)

% ./runInstaller -record -destinationFile <response_file_name> (on UNIX)

(Replace the <response_file_name> with the complete path for the new response file. )

For example:

> setup -record -destinationFile C:\response_files\install_oracle10g.rsp (on Windows)

% ./runInstaller -record -destinationFile /private/temp/install_oracle10g.rsp (on UNIX)

Use the Oracle Universal Installer user interface to select your installation options. These will be recorded. When Oracle Universal Installer displays the Summary page, you can either continue with installation or exit.

From 11GR2 :

When you run Oracle Universal Installer to record a response file,

it checks the system to verify that it meets the requirements to install the software. For this reason, Oracle recommends that you complete all of the required preinstallation tasks and record the response file while completing an installation.

If you have not installed Oracle software on this system previously, create the oraInst.loc file as described in Creating the oraInst.loc File.

Ensure that the Oracle software owner user has permissions to create or write to the Oracle home path that you will specify when you run Oracle Universal Installer.

On each Oracle Universal Installer screen, specify the required information.

When Oracle Universal Installer displays the Summary screen, perform the following:

Click Save Response File and specify a file name and location to save the values for the response file.

Click Finish to continue with the installation.

Alternatively, click Save Response File, and then click Cancel if

you only want to create the response file but not continue with the installation.

The installation will stop, but the settings you have entered will be recorded in the response file.

161. How to remove/ de-install / uninstall Oracle products using OUI ?

A de-installation can be performed before selecting products to install or after a successful installation.

To remove an Oracle product or Oracle home using interactive mode, perform the following steps:

Start Oracle Universal Installer from a CD-ROM or:

– For Windows platforms, launch Oracle Universal Installer from the Start menu by selecting Start, Oracle Installation Products, Oracle Universal Installer.

– For UNIX platforms, at the command line, run the script called runInstaller from the directory where it is stored, which is by default at the same level as the first Oracle home created on that host.

Click De-install Products on the "Welcome" screen. The Inventory dialog appears.

Select the product(s) you want to remove from the Contents tab of the Inventory dialog and click Remove. Oracle home(s) may also be removed in the same manner. Once an Oracle home has been you can reuse its name and location to install other products.

The Remove Confirmation Dialog appears, asking if you want to remove the

products and their dependent components. Click Yes.

Oracle Universal Installer warns you of any product dependencies that might cause problems if particular products are removed, and prompts you to confirm the de-installation.

Pay special attention to the full list of products being removed before proceeding. Oracle Universal Installer computes this list based on the dependencies of each component.

162. How to do the prerequisite/conflicts checks using OUI (Oracle Universal Installer) before applying/rolling back a patch?

OPatch Prereqs can be invoked from OUI . This enables the user to run a group of checks and also the prereqchecker framework of runInstaller provides a good user interface.

Refer Metalink Note 459360.1 How To Do The Prerequisite/Conflicts Checks Using OUI (Oracle Universal Installer) And Opatch Before Applying/Rolling Back A Patch

NOTE : To run OPatch prereqs from runInstaller, you need to have the OUI 10.2 or higher and opatch 11.1 or higher

163. Can you use OUI to install one-off patches?

No, you cannot install one-off patches (Interim-patches) using OUI. You can only install patchsets/base releases using OUI.

Patchsets are a small collection of files that are copied over an existing installation. They are associated to particular versions of Oracle Products. Patchsets, when applied to the correct version of product, result in an upgraded version of the product.

One-off patches ( Interim-patches) are a small collection of files that are copied over an existing installation. They are associated to particular versions of Oracle Products. Patches, when applied to version of an installed product, do not result in an upgraded version of the product. Interim patches are bug fixes that are made available to customers in response to specific bugs. They require a particular release or patchset to be installed before they can be applied. They generally address specific bugs for a particular customer.

164. Can I install a new ORACLE_HOME using OUI , while a database from a different ORACLE_HOME is still running ?

Yes,You can install a new ORACLE_HOME using OUI While a database from different ORACLE_HOME is running

165. Does Oracle need any features of Solaris that are only installed/provided by applying the update and not kernel patches between update 3 and update 6?

Based on the outcomes of the joint performance and other enhancement projects that Oracle Database development and Solaris development teams worked on, Oracle Database 11gR2 product is built and the Solaris 10 U6 OS update level. The base OS update requirement for 11gr2 is therefore Solaris 10 Update 6 or higher. So Oracle Global Software Support cannot support anything below that level. The environments for running 11gr2 Database need to be at Solaris 10 U6 or higher OS update levels.